Alive
by XXCaptainUsoppXX
Summary: Frank wakes up - Frank, just Frank, because Frank-and-Len is no more - to discover that Skull Boy's latest invention has done some very strange things to certain members of the household…
1. Chapter 1

**There aren't enough Ruby Gloom fics out there, especially ones that give Frank and Len their fair share of focus, so I figured I had to write my own. ^^**

* * *

It was dark out when Frank woke up, which meant it was time for a midnight snack. He sat up, couch springs squeaking, and stretched, curled his fingers and toes. Len was still asleep - that was the only time Frank had full control over his left limbs.

"Hey, Len, wake up-" He reached over to smack Len round the head, but his fingers connected with nothing but air.

His stomach dropped down to all ten of his toes.

Someone had decapitated Len.

Frank burst to his feet, clutching at his hair.

"Oh God, we're bleeding! We're dying! Someone killed Len!"

"Who killed Len?"

Frank spun around to see Len sitting up in bed, rubbing at his sleepy eyes.

"Someone chopped your head off!" Frank shrieked.

"_What?_" Len leapt to his feet as well, eyes wide with panic.

Frank froze.

If Len was standing there…

Gingerly, Frank felt along his left shoulder. No bloody stump of Len's neck…

"It worked! Guys, it really worked!"

The garage doors burst open. A boy Frank had never seen before, dark-skinned and green-eyed, black curls falling across his forehead, bounded into the room.

"Finally! Now that I have skin - now that I know what I look like - I can finally find out who I am!"

Those clothes were so familiar. And that voice… It could only mean-

"You ate Skull Boy!" Len shouted, pointing an accusing finger (his right hand, that was supposed to be Frank's hand) at the dark-skinned boy.

"No, Len," Frank said, putting a hand on Len's shoulder - and he was standing on his brother's _left_ side, that had never, ever happened before. "That _is_ Skull Boy."

Skull Boy's jaw dropped (not literally, now) as he took in the brothers. Frank looked down at his own hand and, in the moonlight streaming past Skull Boy, realized his skin had lost its bluish tone. It was pink now, beigey-pink, and a shade or two lighter than Len's new pink skin.

"What _happened_ to you guys?"

"What happened to you, _Skull Boy?_" Len said, raising a suspicious eyebrow.

Skull Boy started to pace in the doorway, chewing on his lip. He had actual _lips_ now, and a broad nose and ears that stuck out a little.

"When I activated the machine, it must have affected you guys, too," he muttered.

"Uh, Skull Boy-"

"I have to go tell Ruby about this!" Skull Boy called, already dashing towards the house. Over his shoulder, he added, "You guys are naked, by the way!"

* * *

"I guess our clothes ripped when we split," Frank said, pulling a shirt over his head. The extra neck hole left his shoulder bare and cold.

Len froze halfway through pulling on a pair of pants.

"Oh my God, Frank, we split!"

"Yes, Len, we did."

"Like, we're not sharing a body anymore!"

"I know, Len."

Len looked down at his hands. "Awesome! That means I get to paint _all _of my nails!"

Frank groaned.

It was nice to be able to face-palm with two hands.

* * *

Skull Boy dashed up the stairs. His body felt strangely slow and heavy, weighed down by skin and muscle and organs.

He was too busy watching his feet (they felt so clumsy and heavy and wide) to notice Misery making her way down the hall towards him until he'd run right into her.

"Ow."

"Sorry, Misery." He got to his feet - without having to stick his bones back together! - and offered her his hand.

"You look… different," Misery observed.

"Oh, yeah, uh…" He watched Misery wander away down the hall, muttering to herself. "Uh, you don't!"

And she didn't. She had the same sickly purple-grey tone to her skin, the same sleek black hair the trailed behind her on the floor…

He winced as a resounding crash echoed through the hall. (Was it just his imagination, or did things sound sharper, clearer, to his new ears?)

"Ow."

She had the same bad luck, too.

He'd changed. Frank and Len had changed. But Misery hadn't?

His urge to ask Ruby about the matter intensified, and he loped off down the hall again.

Because that was what everyone did at Gloomsville Manor. Ask Ruby. She had an answer for everything, and it made Skull Boy's heart swell with affection. (And now he _actually had a heart_, which sent a thrill down his spine.)

"Ruby!" His (now skin-covered) knuckles rapped against her bedroom door. "Ruby?"

It finally occurred to him that it was the middle of the night, and that Ruby was probably asleep… He didn't have time to feel properly guilty, though, because Ruby's bedroom door swung open.

"What's wrong, Skull…"

Her voice trailed off and her jaw went slack.

Same porcelain-white skin, same stitching around her eyes. Ruby hadn't changed at all either.

"Skull Boy?"

He grinned, spread his arms wide.

"It's me. The new-and-improved Skull Boy!"

She swallowed, almost frowned, and for a moment it looked like Ruby's infallible good humour had failed her - Skull Boy's now very real heart clenched painfully in his chest…

Then Ruby laughed and wrapped her arms around his waist. (A hug! A hug, and he could feel it on every inch of his new skin, soft and electric.)

"You look great!" she said, pulling away. "How did this happen?"

"Well, it was one of my latest inventions. I'm pretty sure I'm related to a long line of mad scientists, Ruby! And now that I know what I look like…"

* * *

Why had she hugged him? Where had that impulse come from? Ruby chewed on her lip and tried to smile as he explained his latest invention in detail.

Stranger things than this had happened before in Gloomsville, but it was still hard to believe that this was _Skull Boy_. (And it occurred to Ruby that the name was somewhat less… accurate now.) Skin like chocolate instead of the pure whiteness of bone, a body with muscle and weight instead of the stick-thinness of a skeleton, and so much expression in his mouth and his eyes.

He was attractive (he'd always been attractive, and the thought made Ruby blush enough to turn away from Skull Boy's gaze) but this was… unsettling.

"Ruby? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine! Really." She smiled up at him. "What were you saying about Frank and Len?"

"For some reason, activating my machine affected them, too! But you and Misery look exactly the same…"

Her eyes widened.

"What did it do to Frank and Len?"

"Well-" Skull Boy's answer was interrupted by two figures bursting into the room.

It took Ruby a second to realize who the two figures were.

"Frank? …Len?"

Len, with skin that wasn't green and a body that wasn't attached to Frank's, leaned in towards Ruby and whispered, "So. Has he confessed to being an impostor yet?"

Frank rolled his eyes and groaned. "You still aren't getting it, Len."

Well, that was comfortingly familiar, even if everything else was becoming almost too strange even for Ruby.

"What exactly did your machine do, Skull Boy?" she asked.

Skull Boy's cheeks flushed, actually filled with colour barely visible behind the darkness of his skin but still very much _there_ in a way it never could have been when he'd been nothing but bone.

"Uh… I'm not exactly sure," he admitted, scratching at the back of his neck sheepishly. "I figured that if I knew what I looked like - with skin, I mean, not just bones - then maybe it would be easier to find my family! So when I saw a diagram in an old book for a machine that could turn a skeleton into a human - at least I'm pretty sure that's what the machine was for, I couldn't actually read the language it was written in - I figured I'd give it a shot?"

"But we were never skeletons," Len said, crossing his arms. He glanced over at Frank suspiciously. "Were we?"

"Technically-"

"Was it… this book?" Misery poked her head into the room, holding a dog-eared book open to a page full of strange illustrations.

"Uh, yeah," Skull Boy answered. His voice was somewhat drowned out by the crack of thunder accompanying a bolt of lightning that caused the book to burst into flames in Misery's hands.

Misery's eyes widened as ashes floated to her feet.

"You just created a machine," she said slowly, "That brings the undead back to life."


	2. Chapter 2

"But we weren't undead either, were we, Frank?"

"Well, Len, undead means not dead, which means alive, right? And we were definitely alive," Frank mused.

"Wow. You must be right, Misery. That makes a lot of sense!"

"Hey, guess what this means, Len?"

"That Skull Boy didn't get eaten?"

"That we can finally do that guitar duet we've always wanted to try!"

Len's eyes lit up and he and his brother dashed out of the room, bare feet slapping against the wood of the hallway's floor.

Skull Boy watched them leave, still trying to take in Misery's words.

"Wow, Skull Boy," Ruby said softly. "What does it feel like to be… alive after being dead?"

Skull Boy scrunched his eyebrows and turned to face Ruby.

"I don't know. I mean, I guess I knew that being a skeleton meant that I was human at some point, and that meant I must have died, but…"

"Death is one of the leading causes of memory loss," Misery put in. "I can understand how it could be hard to remember your past life."

Skull Boy nodded slowly and began pacing the length of Ruby's bedroom.

"So if I can remember my life _before_ I died… then I'll be able to remember who I am!" His eyes lit up. "Why didn't I ever think of this before? Everything I could ever learn about my family is stored in my own memories! I just need to remember them!"

Ruby's eyes followed Skull Boy as he paced back and forth.

"I don't know, Skull Boy. That doesn't sound like a very happy thing to remember," she said.

"But Ruby! This could be the key to discovering what I've always wanted to know!"

"Of course, remembering something as traumatic as his own death could put Skull Boy into a catatonic state worse than death itself." Misery's words were punctuated by another bolt of lightning. "Ow."

"You know what sounds like a better idea right now?" Ruby asked, grabbing Skull Boy's wrist gently.

"What?"

"I think it's about time we had another meeting of the Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow club!"

"But, Ruby, it's the middle of the night-"

"Come on! Let's go get Iris!" Ruby called, dragging Skull Boy out of her room and down the hall.

"But what's not fun about catatonic stupor?" Misery called after them.

* * *

The difference between night and day was hardly noticeable in Gloomsville, but something about a thick cover of clouds was much more comforting than the moonlit blackness of the night.

At least, Scaredy was fairly certain fewer dreadful creatures showed their faces during the day.

So once the moon had fallen below the horizon and a swirl of sun-blocking clouds took its place, Scaredy grabbed a fresh bag of mosquitoes and set out for his hammock. He was just getting comfortable when a rustling sound made his skin break out in goose bumps.

"D-Doom?" he called, peeking over the edge of his hammock. There was no screeching of violin cords, though.

Carefully, Scaredy settled back down again. He popped a mosquito in his mouth, relaxed into the comfortable material-

Another rustling. The mosquito went down the wrong way as Scaredy jumped. He coughed loudly, wrapping his wings protectively around himself.

"I-I heard you! You can not sneak up on me! Oh, oh dear…" He shivered, glancing to his left and right.

"Awww, it's no fun when you can hear me coming!"

A small boy with blonde curls and big eyes, wearing a floppy white suit that was far too big for him, stepped out from behind the tree to Scaredy's right.

"Wh-who are you?"

The boy's eyes glinted mischievously and Scaredy ducked his head under his wing.

"I'm not telling~"

"Boo Boo!"

The boy jumped and spun around, looking guilty. Scaredy peeked out from behind his wing.

Two broad men in white pin-stripped suits came up behind the little boy.

"O-oh! Mr. White! Mr. Whyte! I see you've, uh, become human, too!"

"Yes, Boo Boo. And the family is not happy about this turn of events," the taller one, with the hat and the colourful tie, said.

"Ghosts are meant to be ghosts," the shorter one with the gold tooth and ugly blonde toupee added.

"Indeed, Mr. Whyte," agreed the taller one. "And you wouldn't happen to know anything about this turn of events, would you, Boo Boo?"

"No! I swear, I don't know!" the little boy said. He looked… frightened.

"B-Boo Boo?" Scaredy asked tentatively. He flinched when three pairs of eyes turned towards him.

"Awww, now you went and blew my cover," Boo Boo huffed, crossing his arms and pouting up at the two men.

"Come along, Boo Boo, the family is having a meeting," Mr. Whyte said, grabbing Boo Boo by the arm.

"And next time, ask before you take one of the family's heirloom suits," added Mr. White as the three began to walk away.

"But I had nothing else to wear!"

Their voices faded as they headed off towards the house. Scaredy watched them with wide eyes.

"Oh dear, oh my, I wonder if Ruby knows about this." He scrambled out of his hammock and raced towards the house.

* * *

"Alright, Len! One, two, three-"

"Wait!"

"What, Len?"

"Can you show me one more time how to strum the guitar?"

Frank groaned and put down his guitar.

"I've shown you ten times already, Len. It's not that hard."

"But I've never done it before!"

Frank shook his head as he once again reached over his brother's shoulder and demonstrated a perfect strum.

"Got it?"

"Okay. I think so."

The two each grabbed a guitar and stood, ready to play the most rocking guitar duet in the history of music-

"Wait, Len!"

"What, Frank?"

"You haven't taught me the fingering for the chords yet."

Learning to play guitar with two hands was going to be an ordeal.

* * *

"Ruby? Oh dear, Ruby, I have just seen the strangest thing-"

Scaredy Bat burst into Ruby's room, wings flapping hysterically. He stopped short at the sight of the three girls, hands full of bottles and brushes and few things that looked suspiciously like weapons, attacking the dark curls of a boy he'd never seen before.

"Oh my, are you another one of the ghosts?" Scaredy asked tentatively.

"Ghosts?" the boy asked.

"Oh! Boo Boo and the other ghosts must have been revived, too, Skull Boy!" Ruby said, looking over at Scaredy.

"Skull Boy?" Scaredy asked, squinting at the boy. This boy looked nothing like the skeleton Scaredy knew, but those clothes did look rather familiar…

"Yeah! I made a new machine that brings the undead back to life!" Skull Boy announced proudly.

"Stop moving your head!" Iris ordered, holding up a razor. "I might slip!"

"Oh dear…" Scaredy murmured before the world began to spin before his eyes and he fell into the familiar darkness of a faint.

* * *

**Looks like this fic might end up being longer than I had planned...**


	3. Chapter 3

"Skull Boy!" Frank tore into the house, Len on his heels.

Skull Boy looked up from the book he'd been flipping through. His new hair had been shaved on the sides and styled into a wild mohawk, decorated with spiders of varying shapes and sizes.

Frank fell to his knees in front of Skull Boy and clasped his hands together.

"You have to change us back," he begged.

Len collapsed besides Frank and grabbed Skull Boy's ankle.

"Pleeease…" he moaned.

"Oh no, no, no," Scaredy piped up from his seat in front of the fire place. "I would very much not like that. Things are very nice the way they are, thank you. Boo Boo has not been able to sneak up on me all day!"

"But we can't play guitar like this!" Frank said, staring up at Skull Boy with watery eyes. "We've been trying all day."

"It's _terrible_," Len wailed.

"Uh…" Skull Boy scratched at the back of his head.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Misery advised as she glided into the room. "You might agitate the spiders. Most of them are poisonous."

Skull Boy's hands dropped hastily back into his lap.

"I'm sorry, guys," he said, looking down at Frank and Len's teary faces. "But I don't actually know how to change you back…"

"And now that the book's been destroyed… you might never know," Misery put in.

Frank and Len stared up at Skull Boy for a silent moment. Then they collapsed into each other's arms, crying out an agonized, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Oh, look on the bright side, you two," Ruby said, coming into the room behind Misery. "Think of all the new things you can do like this!"

Len looked over at her, sniffling. "Like what?"

"Well, if you each have your own stomach, you can eat twice as much food!" Ruby said.

Frank's ears perked up.

"And-"

"Come on, Len," Frank interrupted, bounding to his feet. "I believe the kitchen is calling."

"All right!"

As he raced his brother to the kitchen, Frank heard Skull Boy ask, "Do you really think they'll be happier like this, Ruby?"

"I don't know," Ruby admitted quietly, and Frank's stomach dropped a little bit. "But if you're are stuck like this, there's no point in getting down about it!"

"Hey, Frank!" Len called. "I bet you can't eat a bigger sandwich than I can!"

The call of food was stronger than any worries, though.

* * *

"So, Skull Boy, you like your new hairstyle, right? Right?" Iris asked excitedly, hopping along after Skull Boy.

"Uh, yeah," Skull Boy answered, trying to step out of the crazy path of her spring-shoes.

"Do you want a new one? We could give you a new one. I bet Ruby and Misery would love to have another club meeting, and maybe we could get Frank and Len to join, too! And-"

"Maybe later, Iris," Skull Boy said.

"Oh, okay. Where are you going, anyways?"

"Uhh…" The newly shaved sides of his head were kind of itchy and Skull Boy had to resist the urge to scratch. (He could have really done without the poisonous spiders.) "I just wanted some time to think, actually."

"Okay!" Iris said, bouncing higher. "Can I think with you? What are we thinking about?"

"Um…" Frank and Len hadn't come back to ask Skull Boy about changing them back again, but their request had made him feel kind of bad.

He really hadn't meant for his machine to do anything to his friends.

And, perhaps even more upsetting… If his machine was meant to bring the undead back to life… that meant that Frank and Len had been dead.

He'd never really thought to wonder about… _what _exactly his friends were. Somehow the thought of them having died was even more upsetting than the thought of his own death.

Maybe Misery was right about this whole thinking-about-death-thing being a bad idea.

"Are you thinking right now, Skull Boy? What are you thinking about? Huh? Huh?"

"Why don't you go ask Ruby and Misery about having another hair club meeting?" he said. "I think I'm just going to… go for a walk in the graveyard."

"Okay! This'll be so much fun, your new hair is so awesome, Skull Boy!" Iris called, hopping off.

"Uh, yeah. Haha…"

Skull Boy stuffed his hands in his pockets and dragged his feet a little as he wandered off towards the graveyard. He still wasn't used to how heavy his new body felt.

"Why so blue, little man?"

Skull Boy's head jerked up at the sound of the familiar voice.

"Skelly-T?"

"Why, if it isn't SB." A dark-skinned man with a crazy mess of dark curls under his hat stepped out from behind a grave, gold tooth glinting in the moonlight. "You're looking pretty fine, my brother."

A couple other men popped out of their hiding places in the graveyard, toting various instruments. The Skeletunes.

"Oh wow… My machine turned you guys human, too?" Skull Boy asked, wide-eyed.

"I thought you might be behind this, kid," Skelly-T said, wrapping a bony (but not nearly as bony as it had once been) arm around Skull Boy's shoulders.

Skull Boy looked down at the hand on his shoulder with wide eyes. Then he pulled one hand out of his pocket and tentatively placed it over Skelly-T's.

Their skin-tones were nearly identical.

"Skelly-T! Look! We match!" Skull Boy said, eyes lighting up with excitement. "Our skin! And our hair! Even our eyes are the same colour, how did I never notice this before?"

Skelly-T laughed and leaned on his cane. "Whoa, there, SB. What are you going on about?"

"We must be related!" Skull Boy said excitedly. "We look the same!"

Skelly-T shook his head and smiled. "I thought you'd already all up and made up your mind about not belonging with the Skeletunes."

"But that was before! I'm sure we must be related. This is why I made that machine! I knew knowing what I look like would help me find my family…"

Skelly-T put a hand on Skull Boy's shoulder and looked down into the boy's green eyes.

"Calm down there, SB. I hate to get you down, kid, but there're millions of people in this wide world with skin and hair like yours." He waved his cane around as if to indicate the whole world. "I ain't too sure we've got the same blood runnin' through our veins."

"But…" Skull Boy's face fell.

"I think finding your family's gonna be more about what's up in here," Skelly-T said, touching Skull Boy's chest gently over his heart. "Than the colour of your skin."

He gave Skull Boy a final pat on the shoulder, than turned to the other Skeletunes.

"Come on, boys, I think SB might want a little time alone," he said, swinging around and motioning to his band with a wave of his cane.

The Skeletunes marched out of the graveyard, and dancing and singing about what's all up in your heart.

Skull Boy sat down heavily at the foot of a grave. He stared down at his hands, smooth skin tinted silvery in the moonlight.

"Guess I'm back where I started," he sighed, leaning his head back against the cool stone and pulling his knees up against his chest.

* * *

**Oh man... HOW do you write Skelly-T's lingo? D:**


	4. Chapter 4

"Skullllll Boyyyyyy!"

"Skullllllllllll Boyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

Frank and Len's voices cut through the night, followed by the pounding of their footsteps. Skull Boy lifted his head as they rounded the garage and came to a stop behind it.

"Whooooaaaa," Len said, eyes widening at the sight before them. "What is this?"

"Oh, this?" Skull Boy stood back and ran a hand through his hair. He'd washed the gel (and the poisonous spiders) out earlier and now his hair flopped limply down the middle of his head. "It's the machine I made. I thought it would take up too much room inside, so I built it out here."

If it were anyone but these two, Skull Boy would have wondered how they could have been stupid enough to miss the massive structure of gears and pipes towering behind their garage.

"Iris told us to come get you," Frank said. "She said you didn't show up for her Here Today, Gone Tomorrow club."

"It's Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow, Frank," Len corrected.

"I know, Len, that's what I said."

"No, you said-"

"Why are you guys handcuffed together?" Skull Boy interrupted, squinting at the metal cuffs linking Len's right hand to Frank's left.

The brothers looked over at Skull Boy in confusion for a moment.

"Oh, these?" Frank said, lifting his left arm and dragging Len's hand up with it. "We thought we might be able to play guitar like this."

"It didn't really work," Len put in.

"Yeah," Frank agreed, frowning.

Skull Boy ran a hand through his hair again (he was getting used to having hair, if nothing else), snapped on a pair of gloves and went back to tackling the machine with a wrench. "Tell Iris I can't make it to the club meeting."

"Uh, if you don't come, she'll probably try to do _our_ hair," Frank said.

"She pulls too hard! It hurts," Len added, covering his head with his hands as if to protect his hair from Iris' vicious grip.

"Ow! Stop pulling on my arm, the cuff digs into my wrist," Frank complained.

"I need to work on this machine, guys," Skull Boy said. "I'm sure I can find a way to change everything back to normal…"

"Really?"

"I don't have the book, but if I can just reverse the- arggh!"

The two brothers threw themselves at Skull Boy, wrapping their arms around him.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Skull Boy grinned nervously. "I'm… sure I'll be able to do it."

* * *

"Len, you're so much shorter than Frank!" Iris said as she shoved the two boys in front of the mirror to admire their new looks. "Look, Ruby, look how much shorter he is!"

"I'm not shorter than Frank!" Len protested. He tried to spin around to face Iris, but mostly succeeded in getting the handcuffs to dig into his wrist. "We've always been the same height!"

"No we haven't, Len," Frank said, rolling his eyes and turning his brother around to face forwards again. "Why do you think we don't have any matching shoes?" He looked down at their bare feet. All the left-side shoes they owned had soles at least an inch or two thicker than the right-side shoes, and wearing mismatched shoes in their new bodies was uncomfortable as hell.

"But our shoulders were at the same level," Len said, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

"My legs are longer, Len."

"But we're twins," Len insisted.

"Twins don't have to be identical," Ruby put in, reaching over to comb Len's bangs out of his face.

Len frowned, seemed to process this for a moment.

"Ouch, Iris, stop pulling," Frank whined.

"Your hair doesn't want to stay flat! It's worse than Misery-"

"Does that mean we're not twins?" Len interrupted.

Frank rolled his eyes. "That's not what Ruby said, Len- whoooa! Where are we going?"

Len was already dashing out of the room and down the hall, dragging Frank along after him.

"Frank? Len? We weren't done with you hair!"

"Sorry, Irissss!" Frank called as he bounded down the stairs after Len.

They burst out the front doors and across the lawn towards the garage. Len only slowed when they came to the machine where Skull Boy was still slaving away.

"What's going on, Len?" Frank asked, massaging his wrist where the handcuffs had dug into his skin.

"Skull Boy!" Len shouted, grabbing their friend by the shoulder.

"Whoa!" Skull Boy looked up. "What's wrong?"

"Am I shorter than Frank?" Len questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh…" Skull Boy looked over at Frank in confusion, but Frank could only shrug.

"I guess," Skull Boy answered, looking back at Len. "You've always been shorter than him."

Len brought his face up close to Skull Boy's and asked with deadly seriousness (which really seemed quite silly, because… it was Len), "Do we even look like brothers?"

Skull Boy glanced from Len to Frank and back again. Frank was tall and pale, with round features and big eyes that were as blue as his skin had been before. Len was shorter and knobbier, with angular features and darker skin.

"Not really," Skull Boy admitted. "But Skelly-T said family isn't really about what you look-"

Len rounded on Frank then, with eyes wide like he'd only just figured something out.

"_We aren't brothers,_" he said with panicked urgency.

"You don't get it, Len," Frank said, shaking his head. "Ruby said-"

"Don't you remember?" Len insisted. He grabbed Frank's collar with his left hand and shook him a little. "Don't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Frank said, trying to pry Len's fingers off his collar.

"Um," Skull Boy interrupted, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. "I think I finished my machine."

"_Don't you remember, Frank?_"

Now Frank was kind of freaking out. He'd never seen Len be so… weird. (And he'd seen Len do more weird things than anyone could imagine.)

"Just change things back, Skull Boy!" Frank said, still trying to pry Len's fingers away.

"_Don't you remember?_"

"Uh, right!" Skull Boy said, reaching for a lever on the side of the machine. He closed his eyes and whispered, "Please work."

He pulled the lever in one dramatic movement, and…

Nothing.

Skull Boy still had skin and hair and ears and a nose.

Frank still had skin that wasn't blue and a body that was all his own, and Len was still shaking him and shouting, "_Don't you remember?_"

Skull Boy's face fell. He landed heavily on the ground, his knees collapsing under him like he was completely defeated.

And then they heard a bloodcurdling scream come from the house.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry for the wait! I was visiting family and didn't have my laptop with me. But _Alive _is definitely not dead. (Punny, eh?) Hopefully I'll be able to wrap this up in a few more chapters, because with school starting soon, I don't want a multi-chapter fic like this hanging over my head.**

**Until then... enjoy!**

* * *

Scaredy Bat yawned and rolled over. He didn't remember having fallen asleep- he was certain he'd been lying in bed reading and munching on mosquitoes a moment ago. Now he was lying on something much too small to be his bed, though.

He reached over and grabbed the bag of mosquitoes next to him- had the bag always been this small?- and popped one in his mouth.

"Blarrgghhh!" He spit it back out into his palm.

That was not his palm. His palm was not smooth and wide and mocha-coloured, with five fingers and no wings attached to his arms.

With a strangled yelp, he jumped out of his too-small bed and over to his too-small mirror.

The face staring back at him was not his own.

He let out a bloodcurdling scream and crumpled to the floor.

* * *

Iris woke up to the ticklish sensation of someone prodding her ribs.

"Ahahha, stop it, Squig, that tickles!"

Iris's eye snapped open and she looked up- into a face she'd never seen before.

"Whooaa, who are you?" she asked, jumping to her feet.

The freckled, round-faced little boy in front of her cocked his head and frowned. He was wrapped in the thick striped blanket Iris sometimes used as a saddle for Squig, his skinny arms and legs bare.

Iris blinked a few times. Something about, well, everything she was seeing seemed off. She reached up to rub her eye- and realized with a jolt that _she had two eyes_.

She looked down at her hands. The white paleness of her skin had become softer and pinker, and her sharp clawed nails were rounded and… human.

Something like excitement jolted down her spine.

Except this feeling was a lot less fun than excitement.

She would almost call it fear, if she knew what fear felt like.

"Squig?" she called out in a small voice. Suddenly she wanted nothing more than to have her pet come and cuddle her.

The little boy stepped over to her and nuzzled his messy red hair under her chin.

She'd never seen the boy before, but this felt comfortingly familiar.

She put an arm around the boy's skinny shoulders and squeezed. He looked up at her, and she recognized the look in those big dark eyes.

"Are you… Squig?" she asked.

He nodded and squeezed her tight.

* * *

Poe woke up with a book on his face.

This didn't happen very often, because Poe liked to give books the attention and admiration they deserved, and falling asleep while reading one was terribly rude.

He supposed he must have been extra tired that evening. His little nap had certainly reenergized him, though, because when he lifted the book off his face it felt lighter than he ever remembered a book being.

"I seem to be doing too much light reading," he mused aloud to himself. "I'll have to find something more substantial."

He stood up from the couch and felt like a giant, as if his head was nearly grazing the ceiling. That nap really had done him a world of good.

He thought maybe he needed a breath of fresh air, just to wake himself up fully, and nearly tore the door off its hinges as he opened it.

Two large men in tiny suits that were falling off of them in ripped tatters stood just outside the door.

"Oh dear," Poe said. "And who might you be, my good fellows? You don't look to be in very good shape."

The two men stared at him with bored eyes. Bored eyes that looked chillingly familiar. If he hadn't known better, he would almost say they looked like-

"Edgar? Alan?"

They nodded in unison.

"Oh. Oh my, whatever happened to you, my brothers?"

They continued to stare at him with their impassive eyes.

"Well. Perhaps you should go talk to Skull Boy, he seems to be educated in matters of… strange transformations," Poe said, slowly backing away from his brothers.

He stepped back inside and paused to look at the portrait of a dapper old gentleman with a rather small top hat hanging in the front hall. Funny, he didn't recall ever hanging that painting. In fact, he distinctly recalled having hung a rather fancy mirror there just a few days before…

"Skull Boyyyyyy!"

* * *

Writer's block could be exhausting, Venus thought to herself, as she yawned and blinked awake.

Wait. Blinked awake?

Venus looked around the attic with wide eyes. Everything was so beautiful! Slightly dusty, but gorgeous! It had such a rustic look to it- perfect for a tragic artist such as herself.

This was just like when she'd learned to talk, or to write. (And writing was going to be so much easier now that she could see the typewriter!) The world was a magical place that never ceased to amaze her.

She couldn't wait to tell Iris that she'd somehow sprouted eyes!

She moved to jumped out of her pot- and realized that her pot had been crushed to pieces under her feet.

Under her bare, pale, very human feet.

She took in the rest of her body, the curve of her hips and her breasts. She had never been able to see before, but she was relatively certain she had never looked like this.

She was also fairly certain that being naked was not something an elegant woman should be.

"How terribly inappropriate!" she lamented to the empty room. She grabbed one of the red velvet curtains that hung in front of her desk and wrapped it around herself. (Very tastefully, if she did say so herself.)

She had to tell Iris of this sudden, magical development!

But first…

She glanced over at her typewriter.

This would make a fabulous story…

* * *

"Ow."

Misery lifted her head from where it had fallen, face-first into a spiky hairbrush. She rubbed at her face and her hand came away with a smear of red blood.

Well. That was new.

She glanced over at the cracked mirror hanging above Ruby's vanity. The hairbrush had left a few bleeding scratches on her pale face. Her pale face that was now pinkish instead of grey, with dark blue eyes that no longer resembled empty pits of darkness. Her hair was as black and shiny and limp as ever, but all in all she looked rather… normal.

It was terribly unsettling.

"Ruby?" she said, prodding her snoozing friend's shoulder.

Ruby jerked awake.

"Huh? What? Did Iris catch Frank and Len?"

"Do I look different to you, Ruby?" Misery asked.

Ruby squinted at her.

"You do look… healthier," Ruby admitted. "It must be that rejuvenating face scrub Iris gave you!"

Misery raised an eyebrow.

"The stitches around your eyes are gone," Misery told her.

"What?" As Ruby turned to look at herself in the mirror, a slim, dark-haired, very naked woman slipped into the room on all fours.

"Waah!" Ruby jumped away from the woman.

The woman leapt onto Ruby's bed and curled up. A rumbling sound came from deep within her throat, almost… a purr?

"Doom Kitty?" Ruby said, noticing the red collar around the woman's throat.

The woman yawned and put an arm over her face.

"Oh look," Misery said vaguely. "Mr. Buns seems to have borrowed some of Skull Boy's clothes."

Ruby spun around to see a man, dressed in one of Skull Boy's many costumes, a bowtie and a fancy suit, slumped against the wall next to her door.

"I… think we need to go find Skull Boy," Ruby said, and tore out of her room.


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry for the wait again you guys. School cuts away not only at my time, but at my motivation, too, it seems. **

* * *

Len clutched his knees to his chest, rocking back and forth, muttering, "Don't you remember, Frank? Don't you remember?"

Len remembered. He remembered so many people he'd known, so many places he'd been, so many things he'd done - and Frank had never been there.

He remembered a huge, dark man who sometimes smelled of alcohol, and yelled, and called Len stupid, but sometimes took him to ball games and ruffled his hair. (Dad.) A small woman who was always cooking and singing and twirling around in a flowing skirt. (Mom.) An older boy who always carried a guitar, who didn't mind that Len followed him around like a shadow. (Brother. His brother. _But not Frank._)

And Len remembered the dark night when they all - him, his dad, his mom, his brother who wasn't Frank - piled into a car and drove to their fiery death.

Len remembered the sound of metal tearing into metal, the acrid scent of burning rubber, the paralyzing pain of his entire right side being crushed.

And then… nothing.

It hurt too much (like the physical agony of that night) to remember anything else.

So he sat in the corner of the manor's great room, rocking himself and reliving the memories. Over and over and over. Without having the words to explain the memories to anyone. To explain them to Frank.

"Don't you remember?" he whispered hoarsely. "Don't you remember not being with me?"

* * *

The residents of Gloomsville Manor sat in a haphazard circle in front of the great hall's fireplace. Len's feverish mumbling was the only sound that cut through the heavy silence.

They'd been excited, at first, showing each other their new human bodies, searching the house for clothes.

And then Len had burst into the house, screaming and crying, unfastened handcuffs dangling from his wrist.

Frank had followed him in, wide-eyed and shaking. And then Skull Boy, slumped and defeated.

"It didn't work," he'd said, and he'd thrown himself down in one of the chairs before the fireplace. "I don't know what else to do. I don't know how to fix this."

"Skull Boy," Ruby had said, gently, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Do you think your machine did this?"

"Did what?" he'd asked.

And then he'd looked up - at Ruby and Iris and Misery, who looked the same but so different. At everyone else, who Skull Boy was sure he'd never seen before, but who all seemed so familiar…

"Oh," he'd said, in a tiny, almost frightened voice.

And then, like a dam breaking loose, everyone had let themselves feel afraid, and different, and lost.

The room had fallen into the sort of silence that was never heard in the manor.

Even Ruby couldn't find the right words.

And so they sat, in a silent circle in front of the fireplace, listening to Len's mumbles. Ruby dug her fingers into Skull Boy's shoulder, feeling as if she had to hold on tight or she'd drift away on this tide of newness and strangeness.

Doom, dressed in a black robe of Misery's, slunk over to Ruby's feet. Absently, Ruby pet her silky hair, scratched behind her ears.

And then she remembered Doom was human now, was a woman, not a cat, so she pulled her hand away.

"I guess it's kind of weird for me to pet you now," Ruby said into the silence.

Doom looked up at her with mournful eyes.

Poe coughed, moved his arms in a strange fashion that would have almost looked like ruffling his feathers if he'd had any.

"Well," he said, getting up and smoothing the front of the suit he'd filched from Skull Boy's costume collection. (It was a tad small, riding up on his rounded belly.) "I suppose I should turn in for the night."

It was barely five o'clock, but no one protested as Poe hurried out of the room with Edgar and Alan behind him. Slowly, everyone else took their leave, mumbling half-hearted excuses. Even Mister Buns disappeared after a while from where he'd been slumped next to the fireplace.

"I think I should go do some research," Skull Boy said finally, getting up.

"Are you sure?" Ruby asked, reluctantly dropping her grip on his shoulder.

He only nodded absently as he wandered off in the direction of his room.

That left Ruby alone with Frank and Len, and Doom Kitty (Doom Lady?) snoozing in front of the fire.

Frank sat perched on the tall back of the chair Skull Boy had been occupying, his head in his hands, staring down silently at Len.

"Are you okay, Frank?" Ruby asked tentatively, perching herself on the armrest of the chair.

Frank sighed and slid down until he was sitting in the seat of the chair.

"Do you think Len's going to be okay, Ruby?"

Ruby looked over at Len, still looking spooked and shaky, still muttering to himself: "Don't you remember, Frank?"

"What is he trying to get you to remember?" Ruby asked when she turned back to face Frank, because she couldn't bring herself to answer his question.

Frank shrugged. "He started saying we're not brothers. And then he asked me if I remembered and he wouldn't _stop_ asking." Frank's voice sounded cracked, like he was about to scream, or cry.

Ruby reached out and took his hand in her own.

"But you are brothers," Ruby said, trying to make her smile reassuring.

"I know we are," Frank answered. "Of course we are. I remember playing with that xylophone when we were newly created- I mean born. When we were newly born. When we were babies.

Frank's eyes suddenly snapped wide open. His hand between Ruby's fingers started to shake.

"We were never babies," he said softly. "Not together. We were created. We were built. Like a robot. Like… like a monster."

Frank looked up at Ruby with haunted eyes.

"I died, Ruby," he whispered. "I had a life and a family, and then I got really, really sick and I died. And then… and then someone took what was left of me and what was left of Len and sewed us together and created a monster."

Frank looked like he was going to vomit. Ruby could feel her heart pounding in her throat. Her hand felt clammy against Frank's palm.

Frank tore his hand away from Ruby and stumbled over to Len. He leaned down and wrapped his arms tightly, desperately, protectively around his brother. (Except Len wasn't Frank's brother at all.)

"Don't you remember, Frank?"

"Yeah, Len. I remember."


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry for all the waiting, you guys.**

* * *

Sweat beaded on Skull Boy's brow. The candlelight flickered across the pages of the books spread open around him. He couldn't remember ever being this tired.

Did his new body get tired more easily?

"Skull Boy?"

Ruby stepped quietly into Skull Boy's room. He didn't look up from the page he was poring over.

"Skull Boy, you've been up here all day. You should take a break."

"I need to fix this, Ruby."

Ruby sighed and sat down behind Skull Boy. Her hands brushed his shoulders, then massaged them gently.

"I asked Frank and Len. They said you're allowed to take a break."

"No, Ruby, I-"

Ruby stood up and put her hands on her hips.

"If you don't come with me, I'm going to go get Iris and she'll drag you out."

Skull Boy stared up at Ruby for a second, then sighed and got up.

"Fine. But just for a little while." He looked down at the dark skin on his hands, the skin he'd thought held so many secrets but really held none at all. "I just want everything to go back to normal."

Ruby smiled.

"Me, too." She ruffled his hair and added, "But you do look cute like this."

Then she dashed out of the room. As Skull Boy followed after her, he could have sworn her cheeks had glowed pink in the half-light of the sputtering candles.

* * *

Ruby paused on the manor's front steps to wait for Skull Boy. She fanned herself, ordered her traitorous cheeks to stop flushing. Why had she said that Skull Boy looked cute? (Even though it was so true.)

"Where are we going, Ruby?" Skull Boy asked as he pushed open the heavy front doors.

Ruby hooked her arm around Skull Boy's and pulled him along.

"It's a surprise~" she told him.

Skull Boy didn't answer, and Ruby could see his eyes fade, slipping back into his own thoughts. The weak light peeking through the clouds overhead lit up Skull Boy's face, and Ruby could see dark purple bags under his eyes.

"Len's better now, I think," Ruby ventured. "Frank, uh, talked to him. About stuff."

She couldn't bring herself to tell him exactly what Frank had said in the great hall the night before.

Skull Boy's shoulders slumped in relief.

"Good," he said.

Ruby smiled.

She met Skull Boy's eyes as he looked over at her.

"How about you?" he asked. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" Ruby said happily. "Really, not much changed for me."

She gave Skull Boy her most reassuring smile.

She didn't tell him that she'd stayed up all night wondering. Wondering, if she was human now, what had she been before?

The two continued to walk in silence, but it was a comfortable silence now. Ruby dared to slip her hand into Skull Boy's, and the warmth of his palm filled her whole body with a pleasant tingling.

They wandered far from the manor, past the garage and the graveyard and into Gloomsville.

Finally, the dark, wet sand of the Gloomsville beach came into view.

"We're here!" Ruby said, racing towards the surf and dragging Skull Boy along behind her.

She dove into the chilly water, fully clothed. The black waves crashed over her, plastering her hair to her face.

She laughed and smiled up at Skull Boy, who stood in the waves next to her. Water dripped down his nose. His smile was wide, dark lips and white teeth.

"Race you to the buoy!" Ruby shouted. She dove into the waves, Skull Boy splashing behind her.

She reached the buoy first and held onto it, shivering. Night had fallen during their walk and the silvery light of the moon was reflected in the black water. She watched Skull Boy cut through the smooth surface, turning up waves.

"You're so slow!" she shouted at him, laughing.

It hardly looked like he was moving at all. In fact…

"Skull Boy!"

Ruby dove back below the surface, heart racing. The water seemed so much colder. The waves seemed so much harsher, throwing her around. The salty water stung her eyes and threatened to fill up her mouth and lungs.

It took her seconds that felt like hours to reach Skull Boy, who was thrashing in the water, waves crashing over him and driving him under.

Ruby gulped down cold air. She tried to grab Skull Boy but he fought against her as he strained to keep himself above water. Behind the sound of her own heart pounding in her ears and the crash of the surf, Ruby could hear Skull Boy screaming. His eyes were red and wide.

"Calm down!" Ruby screamed. She wound her arms around his chest as tightly as she could. His elbow bashed into her face and pain blossomed in her nose. Red blood dripped into the water crashing around them.

Her hands threatened to let him go, but she held on tight.

"Let me go!" Skull Boy screeched, clawing at Ruby's arms and kicking at her below the surface. "Let go let go letgo!"

Ruby only tightened her grip.

"Shut up!" she shouted, and the salty water dripping down her face wasn't all from the ocean.

She kicked desperately, her head dipping underwater as she fought to drag Skull Boy to the shore.

"I'm drowning!" Skull Boy screeched, flailing in Ruby's grasp.

"You wouldn't be drowning if you calmed down!" Ruby shouted in reply. The sand was so far away.

Suddenly Skull Boy's hands were gripping the front of Ruby's shirt.

"I'm gonna die, Ruby," he hissed, and his voice was barely audible behind the crash of the waves.

"You're not going to die, Skull Boy," Ruby said. Her arms ached with the effort of holding onto him.

"I already have."

Suddenly, Ruby could feel sand beneath her feet. She hauled Skull Boy, who'd gone limp and shaky in her arms, onto the shore. She fell onto her back beside him, breathing heavily.

"Are… you okay?" she asked Skull Boy softly, looking over at him.

He was lying spread eagle, moonlight reflected in his glassy dark eyes. His wet clothes were plastered to his skin and his chest rose and fell as he gasped for air, coughing and shivering.

"I remember drowning," Skull Boy said, softly. "I died by drowning."

Skull Boy sat up, pulled his knees to his chest. Ruby carefully placed a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it away.

"Misery was right," he muttered into his knees. "Remembering death is scary as hell."


	8. Chapter 8

**After another ridiculously long wait, I bring you chapter 8!**

* * *

Len shot up in bed, eyes snapping open. Frank sat up, too, head lolling as he snored next to him.

They were attached again.

"Frank!" Len shouted, the fingers of his left hand clenching the sheets excitedly. "We're not separated! It was all a dream!"

Frank blinked awake and yawned. He looked down at their bodies, bound together with a ridiculous amount of duct tape.

"We're still separated, Len," Frank said patiently. "I doesn't matter how many times you say it was just a dream. It doesn't make it true."

Len frowned, brows knit in concentration. Then he flopped back down again, dragging Frank's body down with him.

"Let's try again!"

Frank groaned.

* * *

Skull Boy held the thick book open with one toe, glancing down at the worn pages once in a while as he tinkered with the huge machine that still hulked behind Frank and Len's garage.

"Getting far?"

Skull Boy jumped at the sound of Misery's voice.

"Uhhh…" He squinted down at the book again. Then his shoulders slumped. "No," he admitted.

"I'm sorry that lightning bolt destroyed the book with the machine plans," Misery said.

"It's okay, Misery," he assured her. "It wasn't your fault."

As if to prove his point, a flash of lightning filled the sky and a bolt found its way to Misery.

He waited for the deadpan "ow", for Misery to wander away, a trail of smoke floating from her singed hair.

Instead, he watched in horror as Misery crumpled to the ground, eyes wide open in shock. An ugly red scar cut across the pale human skin at the top of her head.

_Her pale human skin._

_Human skin._

"Misery!" Skull Boy screamed, falling to his knees beside her still body.

Misery was human now.

Humans couldn't survive a direct bolt of lighting the way… whatever Misery had been before could.

Tears welled up in Skull Boy's eyes and dripped down his cheeks. His hands shook as he touched Misery's still-warm skin.

He'd screwed everything up.

And now he'd killed Misery.

He turned back to the machine, suddenly. With feverish movements he pulled at the lever, again, again.

If he'd turned the dead into the alive once, he could do it again.

But nothing happened.

Misery continued to lie on the ground, singed and still.

Dead.

He fell to his knees. His books lay in a haphazard pile next to him. He grabbed one and tore through its pages frantically, tears blurring his eyes.

He could save her. He knew the living dead existed. He _was_ (had been) the living dead.

His eyes landed on one page of the thick tome. A zombie, body hunched and twisted, was sketched on the page. And underneath it, written in a curly script that Skull Boy almost couldn't read past the blur of his tears…

_That which turns the monstrous_

_To human_

_If stripped to its core_

_Can take the corpse_

_And turn the human_

_To the monstrous_

Beneath the curly script was a tiny doodle, scratched in black ink at the very bottom of the page. A machine made of gears and pipes and bits of metal.

A machine that looked amazingly like the one sitting behind Skull Boy right now.

_If stripped to its core_

Without really thinking about what he was doing- without letting himself think about it- Skull Boy began to tear at the machine with his bare hands. Every pipe, every gear and bit of metal was twisted and torn at until it fell away. His hands became raw and bloody. He couldn't see what he was doing past the tears. Scraps of metal accumulated at his feet.

He didn't stop until all that remained of the machine was the small knot of gears at its center and a single lever. It looked small and fragile, the size of a human heart.

This was the core he'd started with when he'd built his machine. It had been on the first page of the book in which he'd found the plan. He remembered the page, the edges decorated with grinning skulls that he'd found almost familiar, almost funny at the time.

Now he wondered.

Carefully, with shaking hands, he scooped us Misery's body. Her skin had gone cold as he'd ripped at the machine. She was amazingly light. And amazingly still.

He stumbled over to the core and placed her body so she was touching it. He didn't know what he was doing.

He gripped the lever with both hands and tried to stop himself from shaking. He took a deep breath that rattled in his throat.

He pulled the lever.

Black light crackled along the gears of the core. Strings of black lightning jumped from the machine and wound themselves around Misery's still body. Skull Boy wanted to scream, but his voice was caught in his throat.

Her pink human skin dulled to grey. The gash in her head knit itself grotesquely shut. Her eyes yellowed and her mouth slackened.

Skull Boy's whole body shook as Misery's dead eyes took on an otherworldly shine and turned to focus on him.

"Ow."


	9. Chapter 9

**A new chapter so soon? Wow.**

**If you guys haven't checked it out already, Roxie the Rebel and XaiIrken drew some very lovely fanart for _Alive_ (it's seriously a huge honour, you guys, thank you so much~). There're links to them on my profile! Go, go, check 'em out!**

* * *

"Y-you died, and then I broke the machine- I mean I stripped, to the core, because the book told me to- not the book that you burned, the other book, one I had- and then black lightning- not the lightning that killed you, different lightning- and then- it touched you- and then you came back to life- except not really life, I think you're still dead?- but living dead- like- like-"

Skull Boy's hands shook frantically. His eyes were wide and stung with tears. He couldn't catch his breath as he tried to explain what had happened to Misery.

She cocked her head and shrugged.

"That makes sense," she said calmly. "What better way to turn humans back into monster than by killing them?"

Skull Boy's mouth snapped shut. He wasn't surprised that Misery was taking her death so well.

But her words made cold sweat beat on his brow.

"Do you mean…" He swallowed. His hands were still shaking. "To make things go back to normal… I have to kill everyone?"

* * *

Skull Boy held the small heart of gears in both hands. They weren't shaking as much anymore, but he still couldn't seem to catch his breath.

He stood in front of the fireplace in the great hall. Everyone was sitting at his feet, on the floor or in the seats. Iris, Squig, Scaredy Bat, Poe and his brother, Boo Boo and the other ghosts, Venus, Doom. Misery. Ruby. Even the Skeletoons. Everyone who'd been affected by Skull Boy's machine.

He drank in the sight of everyone, everyone looking so unfamiliar and human. (Except for Misery, of course, and he wasn't sure if her new look was comforting or horrifying- she looked exactly as she had before everything became crazy, but there was a distinct feel of death that hung around her even more heavily than her bad luck ever had.) It had taken some effort for him and Misery to gather everyone. Only Mr. Buns remained impossible to find.

He took a deep breath and found himself unable to say a word. He looked over at Ruby, who gave him a bright smile.

He coughed and returned her smile as best as he could.

"Everyone!" he said. "I think I must be related to-" He stopped. He had no idea who he was related to. A long line of murders? "I… think I know how I can change things back to normal."

Len hooted with joy and Frank's face stretched into a grin. Excited murmuring filled the great hall.

Skull Boy cringed.

He held the core of the machine above his head.

"This machine can change us back to normal!" he said. "Or… at least, we won't be human anymore."

"Hurry up!" Len shouted. "Do it now!"

"There's only one problem," Skull Boy continued. He looked over at Misery, who nodded. "For it to work… you have to die."

Silence. Skull Boy's stomach twisted into painful knots.

"We can go back to normal?" Len asked after a long moment.

"Yes," Skull Boy answered. His voice was quieter than he meant for it to be. He coughed again. "Yes. At least, it worked for Misery."

Everyone glanced over at her. A bolt of lightning accompanied their glances. Skull Boy cringed and panic set his veins on fire.

Nothing but the usual singing of her hair and a faint, "Ow."

"Then I'll do it," Len said.

"Yeah," Frank said. "Me, too."

Skull Boy didn't relax. "Are you sure?"

The brothers (because they were still brothers, no matter where they'd come from), still taped together with lengths of silver duct tape, nodded in practised unison.

"I'm glad those cats are all up and cool with being dead, but I think this new lease of life is pretty groovy, SB," Skelly-T said, leaning forwards on his cane. The rest of his band nodded their agreement. "I'm gonna have to pass up on your wicked offer, my brother."

Skull Boy's shoulder relaxed and he smiled. "Okay."

"I would not like to die, no no, not at all," Scary Bat said, wringing his hands. "I actually quite like being human and not quite so small and vulnerable, thank you very much."

Boo Boo peeked from behind Scaredy's chair and softly said, "Me, too. I like being alive again."

"I don't think we can allow that, Boo Boo," Mr. White said, stepping forwards. "The family is a family of ghosts. We can't allow-"

"Actually," Mr. Whyte interrupted, playing nervously with his toupee. "I wouldn't mind staying alive, actually."

Mr. White blanched. "Mr. Whyte! You can't-"

"Isn't it nice to not be tied to a single house to haunt? We could take on the world, Mr. White!"

Mr. White stared grimly down at his partner for a moment. Then his mouth stretched into a smile. "I think you're right, Mr. Whyte." He turned to Skull Boy. "The family will be passing up this offer, too."

"I dare say my family will be passing up this chance as well, my dear boy," Poe spoke up, to the nods of Edgar and Allan. "I believe this human form is much more dapper and proper than that of a crow- though being the descendant of Edgar Allan Poe's pet-"

"It is such a beautiful thing, to be alive! And to see the world! It makes it so much easier to write about it!" Venus gushed. She was dressed in a lovely black dress she'd sewn for herself in the past few days, slinky and low cut. "I would not like to go back to being a plant, not at all."

Iris bit her lip.

"I… just want things to go back to normal." She hugged Squig to her chest, who nodded his agreement. "I've… never been so scared before. Being human is scary," she whispered.

Skull Boy looked over at Ruby, who was sitting in one of the high backed chairs, swinging her feet slowly. She looked at each of her friends, at Frank and Len, wrapped ridiculously in tape, at Iris with her worried frown, at Misery with her new aura of death. Then her eyes rested on Skull Boy.

"What about you, Skull Boy?" she asked.

He took a deep breath.

"I'm… I want to go back to normal," he said. His fingers gripped the core more tightly.

Ruby smiled at him, but it wasn't Ruby's usual smile. It was hesitant, and scared, but it still held the warmth that only Ruby could hold.

"Then me, too," she said. "I'll go back to normal with you, too." Doom nuzzled her head up against Ruby's leg. "Doom wants to be normal again, too."

"Okay," Skull Boy said, taking a shaky step forwards. "Okay. Let's go."

* * *

Standing in the middle of a field, during a lightning storm, holding onto a metal pole, a metal pole that was also currently being held by Misery, was a very, very stupid thing to do.

At least, it was a very stupid thing to do if you were trying _not _to get hit by lightning.

Skull Boy had walked slowly out of Gloomsville Manor. Ruby, Doom, Iris, Squig, Frank, Len and Misery had followed behind him in an uncharacteristically silent procession. Their friends watched them in silence. Skull Boy could almost taste it on his tongue, the taste fear and waiting and _silence_.

It was raining outside, thick black drops slicing through the night air. Thunder grumbled in the distance and bolts of lighting lit up the sky. He moved towards the empty field beyond the graveyard, towards the metal pole, set up and decorated with colourful ribbons a while ago for a May Day party. Now, the ribbons were being torn around in the windy rain, reaching like tentacles towards the procession that was slowly walking towards it.

The wind howled in Skull Boy's ears.

They crowded around the pole without a word. Their hands grasped at the metal pole. The ribbons wound around them. Skull Boy handed the core to Misery.

And they waited.

"Thanks, Skull Boy," Len said, and his voice was barely audible above the howl of the wind and the growl of thunder.

"Yeah, thanks, Skull-" Frank's voice was cut off by a crack of thunder so loud it tore right into Skull Boy's ears. The bright white light of lightning ripped through the black sky and crashed into the metal pole.

The last thing Skull Boy had a chance to think was that it was a shame that when he went back to normal, Ruby wouldn't be able to appreciate his hair anymore.


	10. Epilogue

No one talked about Skull Boy's machine. No one talked about that time they'd all turned human- no one talked about the fact that half of the residents of Gloomsville Manor hadn't always been human.

It had hung over their heads like an elephant in the room for a while afterwards. Sometimes, someone would try to bring it up- but they'd be met by deaf ears, and after a while everyone seemed to forget that it was something that had happened at all.

* * *

"I think I might be related to a long line of beekeepers!" Skull Boy announced, his bones clacking as he dashed into the kitchen wearing his ridiculous beekeeper outfit. "Look at this honey I made! Hey, Ruby! You wanna try this?"

Ruby looked up from the scarf she'd been knitting and smiled.

"Sure," she said. "I actually just finished making some bread. We could have sandwiches-"

"Sandwiches?" Frank and Len appeared in the doorway, already drooling at the thought of food.

"I want some too!" Iris shouted, swooping up to the window on Squig's back.

"I'll have some, too, please," Misery said, coming into the kitchen. The cupboard above her head swung open suddenly and a cascade of pots and pans crashed down onto her head. "Ow."

Doom Kitty hopped up onto the table as Ruby started slicing up the bread. She licked at the lid of the jar as Skull Boy started to slather the slices with honey.

"Guess what?" Iris said as she crawled through the window and into the kitchen. "I got a new wig for Skull Boy! We're gonna have a Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow club meeting tonight!" She glanced over at Frank and Len and grinned. "You guys are invited, too!"

"Noooooo!" Len shouted, covering his head with his hands. "Ruby! Don't let her hurt us!"

"It'll be fun, you guys," Ruby said, setting out plates of bread and honey for them.

"Is the wig another mohawk?" Skull Boy asked warily.

"Yep!" Iris answered with a grin, scarfing down her own snack.

"No spiders this time, at least," Skull Boy said. "I think I'm related to a long line of people who are allergic to spiders."

It had become a habit, talking about the long line of ancestors he might have had. He was still curious- he would always be curious- about where he'd come from, but he was also wary of the trouble memories of his past could dig up.

He was pretty happy with things the way they were.

"Mohawks are much better with spiders," Misery said vaguely as she pulled herself out of the avalanche of pots and pans.

"Skull Boy looks cute with whatever hair he wants to have," Ruby said. She reached up on tiptoe and smooched his smooth bony cheek. "Even with no hair."

Skull Boy grinned and wrapped a bony arm around Ruby.

They never talked about the machine that Skull Boy had made. They never talked about what had happened for those few terrifying days.

But things _had_ happened during those days, and no matter how much they pretended to have forgotten, they never really would.

* * *

**And that wraps up this fic that lasted much longer than I meant for it to! I quite enjoyed writing it, though, and I hope you guys enjoyed reading it. ^^**

**There's also a bonus alt-ending chapter that I'll have up... soon... ish...**


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